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PS1810 switch family, purpose built switches designed for the MicroServer Gen8 family

I heard from our northern friends in Canada that Canada’s “The Globe and Mail” posted a fantastic review of the HP MicroServer Gen8 and PS1810 switch. This unsolicited review provides numerous quotes about this powerful SMB solution that I would like to share here in this blog: (Note that the prices below reflect Canadian pricing.)

The following quote identifies some of the critical challenges that HP has addressed for any SMB environment when deploying electronic equipment – cooling, space, aesthetically pleasing, power

“It needs no special environment or power. It will sit quite happily in a corner, or on a reception desk, where its gentle blue glow (actually a system health indicator in disguise) and available decorator front door make it fit right in. Yes, to help it match any décor, the MicroServer’s silver front door can be swapped for one in black, red, or blue. In addition, the server is tiny – roughly a nine inch cube – so it won’t get in the way. And its whisper quiet, even up close.”

The quote above reinforces the thought that went through the design of this little power house. Given the office environment, easy to see system health indicator, along with providing multiple color choices were important to make the server as aesthetically pleasing as possible in order for it to blend in to all office environments.

One powerful package at a very attractive price…

“And the best part? The base model, without hard disks or operating system, starts at $597 (all prices in Canadian dollars). For that price, you get a dual core 2.3 GHz Intel Celeron processor, 2 GB RAM, dual Gigabit Ethernet ports (which can be aggregated to double throughput), HP’s Integrated Lights Out (iLO) management card, and a storage controller, plus five USB 2.0 ports, and two USB 3.0 ports.”

The combined server and switch solutions needed to be very price sensitive yet deliver the power and connectivity capabilities required for most small business owners. This likely is the first server/switch combo that a small business owner has purchased for the very first time.

HP’s PS1810 switch family – purposely designed for the MicroServer Gen8

“If you also need a network switch, HP has designed an 8 port managed model, the PS1810-8G, priced at $194 (Canadian dollars), that sits tidily in a depression on top of the MicroServer.”

The sleek design consumes very little desktop space, perfect for the SMB customer.

Don’t worry, you don’t need to be a server guru or a computer networking expert

“The switch has enough smarts to detect and list all MicroServers on its network, so administrators don’t have to hop from iLO to iLO to manage them; they just click the name of the server they want to work on from within the switch’s browser-based management interface. For larger offices, you can connect several switches, but there’s also a $429 24 port model (it doesn’t fit on top of the MicroServer, though). Both switches are covered by HP’s enhanced lifetime warranty, which includes three years of 24/7 phone support.”

Designed so that the SMB owner can focus on your business, not the technology, HP has you covered with peace of mind warranties (Lifetime warranty for the switch including free telephone support for up to three years!)

“So whether it’s for a small office, home office, or even a dorm startup, the HP ProLiant MicroServer Gen8 is a great choice. Its tiny footprint, undemanding environment needs, low price and manageability let it fit in virtually anywhere, and look good to boot.”

Windows IT Pro also published their assessment of the PS1810 switch and ProLiant MicroServer Gen8

“Somewhat surprisingly the unit also comes with the HP PS1810-8G switch giving the small business everything they would need to get up and running right out of the box.

The accompanying HP PS1810-8G switch is designed to be stacked either on top of or underneath the HP ProLiant MicroServer. As you might note in Figure 1 its form factor matches the MicroServer perfectly and a clever case design lets it fit in snuggly with the server. Like the MicroServer the HP PS1810-8G switch is completely manageable which is notable for a low cost network switch. The HP PS1810-8G switch uses a quiet fanless design and provides eight 1GB network ports. Multiple switches can be linked together. Port 1 is a Power over Ethernet Powered Device (PoE PD) port. You can manage the switch by directing a web browser to the switch’s IP address. If there is a DHCP server present the switch will automatically acquire an IP address from the DHCP server. Otherwise, you can manage the switch by directing a web browser to the default 192.168.2.10 IP address. Like you might expect the PS1810-8G switch provides layer 2 switching and VLAN support. Notably, it also supports link aggregation enabling it to bind together two Ethernet ports on MicroServer Gen8 with HP PS switch effectively doubling the throughput to server (2G instead of 1G).”

The HP ProLiant MicroServer and PS1810-8G switch is a great choice for small businesses looking to put in their first server, a home office server or for organizations looking to add manageable low cost servers for departmental computing. Its small size and low power consumption make it an economically choice for small business and its remote iLO management capabilities enable a consultant or systems integrator to easily remotely manage and troubleshoot both the HP ProLiant Microserver and the PS181-8G network switch.

Its great to see unsolicited positive reviews coming from industry experts, further validates HP’s dedication to solving business challenges with innovative technology.